Tiffany Baugh
I am a senior pursuing a double major in History and Women’s and Gender Studies. I’ve been in love with writing since before I could write—I have memories of taking a notebook and colored pencil and writing squiggles (because I still couldn’t write whole words) and telling myself stories. My love of writing continued all through school, so when it came time to apply for college, it was a no-brainer that I would choose an English major. However, life is a journey and I soon found myself pursuing a History degree instead. I found something beautiful about historical writing that I had never noticed before. It was a journey—from the very first outlines and squiggles and arrows in four different colored inks that only I could understand, to the final, double-spaced, 12-pt.-font, 1”-margin masterpiece that I turned in. Just as I had fallen in love with the storytelling aspect of writing when I was little, in college I fell in love with the journey. I hope as a consultant in the Writing Center, I’m able to help other students along in that journey—the journey of writing itself, and the journey from being a beginning writer to one who appreciates its beauty.
Shelby Clark
I’m a sophomore/junior in the Honors Program at UM-D, currently double majoring in History and Psychology. The immense satisfaction I feel after a consultation is what has really made me grow to enjoy working at the Writing Center. Hearing someone’s relief at completing a problem paper, or seeing someone look forward to further writing assignments based on the progress he or she made in a consultation is incredibly gratifying. I have had students come in at their wits’ end, feeling helpless in their attempts to write a paper, formulate a thesis, etc. To help these students gain the confidence to write gives me the confidence to help other students. Gaining “regulars,” who feel I have helped them in the past well enough to come back to me, definitely instills a sense of importance on my consultant position. While having the confidence of regular students is gratifying, having students visit less and grow in their writing abilities based on help from the WC is even more of a balm to my consultant’s soul.
Paul Ewald
I’m a senior in the honors program majoring in history and political science. I will graduate this April and attend Wayne State Law School in the fall, pursing a degree in international law. My dream is to one day work for the United Nations. I am currently a member of the history honors society Phi Alpha Theta, the pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta and the international scholastic honors society Golden Key. I worked for several years tutoring first and second grade students having difficulty learning how to read. I also worked in the special education department of my middle and high schools, helping physically and mentally handicapped children learn how to read and write. I firmly believe that good writing skills are an asset in all careers. I am eager to work with anyone with a desire to learn. I am a firm believer that cooperation and mutual respect work for the benefit of all parties involved.
Mouna Haidar
I am currently a senior here at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I am enrolled in the Secondary Education program. My major is English and my minor is Psychology. I love helping out others and watching them grow from where they started in the beginning of the session to where they ended. I enjoy observing where they made their mistakes and am quite happy when they read their paper aloud and notice them on their own rather than me pointing them out, although that’s what I’m there for! I also enjoy when they ask other questions, such as how to cite the sources, which is very important in any type of writing. That shows you that they really care about their paper and want to achieve the most out of that particular assignment. Most of all, I appreciate the satisfaction I gain when I look at them at the end of the session. They walk in so confused and not sure how to start their paper, yet when they leave, they exit with a sense of completion and pride. It feels good knowing I helped them get to that point.
Rana Hakim
I’m a senior with a concentration in Elementary Education, majoring in Language Arts and minoring in Science. I hope to become a writer some day and am very passionate about writing. I love helping people realize that writing is as natural as speaking and that all thoughts are important and can leave a lasting legacy if people only take the time to write them down. Remember, good writers are not born, they are made. Nobody is born with the “writing gene.” In order to be a good writer, you actually need to do some writing. So come visit me in the Writing Center, and I promise you, I’ll help you see that somewhere inside you is an excellent writer just waiting for some inspiration to get out. Let me be that inspiration! I can speak, read, and write Arabic fluently. (Obviously, English as well!)
Melissa Hilton
I am currently in my fourth year of study at the University of Michigan in Dearborn. I am in the Honors Program pursuing a major in Biological Sciences with a minor in psychology. Besides my job here at the Writing Center, I also work at Mount Clemens Regional Medical Center as a certified Nurse Assistant, and I am hoping to get into medical school to become a physician. Writing encompasses all aspects of life and being able to express yourself through written word is one of the most enjoyable academic experiences out there. While writing and medicine might not seem interrelated at first, they are both about helping someone who has a problem, be it heart disease or writer’s block. This is what I enjoy most about working at the writing center; I am given a different medium in which I am able to help people through various struggles every day. Although my background is mostly scientific, I thoroughly enjoy writing and am here to help you learn to enjoy writing as well.
Nabila Ikram
This is my second year working at the Writing Center as a consultant. I am a student at the School of Education concentrating in elementary education with a major in social studies and minors in language arts and science. Due to the fact that my future goals are to become a teacher and help serve the educational system, my work at the Writing Center has given me a significant amount of knowledge and practice to help me in my path to achieve these goals. Along with the fact that I learn something new every time someone brings a paper, an idea, or even just themselves to a consultation, I am also constantly learning more about the learning process and teaching techniques to better help others with their writing (as well as my own!), and therefore, their expression and communication. I look forward to continuing my work at the Writing Center, for every day brings me more experiences and a step closer to becoming a better teacher by helping others and a better student by learning from others. I hope that through my work I am able to allow others to have a similar experience. I can fluently speak Urdu/Hindi (generally spoken at home), although I cannot read and write in these languages.
Ummehaany Jameel
Bio coming soon.
Khadija Jawad
I enjoy writing and love to read things written by others; I think the things people around me write are wonderfully different from the things published authors write. Both groups have good and bad things to say and point out, but the techniques are so different. Nobody can possibly say that one group is better than the other in what it has to say. Working at the Writing Center, I get acquainted with new ideas and several new perspectives, which inform my understanding of not only the people I am immediately surrounded with but with people I have never seen and may never see again. Just when I think there can be no more interesting stories in this world, I am corrected by a student coming in with something entirely new and engaging. I learn, and although I may not necessarily advance in academic terms, I definitely advance in life. I speak English and Arabic, and am fluent in both.
Chene Koppitz
As someone with dual majors in Communications and Gender Studies, my interest in working in the Writing Center is immense. I’m most excited to work with my fellow students, both as colleagues and as clients of the Center. All opportunities students, faculty and staff have to interact with each other in positive, productive ways will only help the campus toward becoming a true community. I’m a former film and music publicist and Community Events Director for the Triangle Foundation, one of Michigan’s largest LGBT and Allied organizations. While I’m a former New Yorker, I was born and mainly raised in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs. My campus involvement includes Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL) and the D-Tab committee, which was assembled to aid transfer students as they acclimate to UMD. A huge fan of Detroit’s music and culture, I can be found at Derby Girls bouts, the Detroit Film Theatre or any of our city’s many musical venues whenever I can be.
Susan Millington
One of my greatest pleasures of working in the Writing Center is seeing the gratification the students show as they improve and gradually master their writing skills and subsequently its reflection in their writing assignments. The ability to empower another person, in any facet of life, gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride. Especially rewarding is when I help our international students who not only must master our spoken language, but also its written form. I appreciate the diversity of the faculty and students that I am privileged to interact with as a writing consultant. I enjoy the opportunity to educate and empower students to improve their communication skills, to express themselves in unique ways, and to be confident and competent in their writing abilities.
Noelle Monforton
For years I’ve been fascinated with what people have to say and the words they use to say it. By becoming a writing consultant, I hope to be able to help people express their ideas clearly and with pride. Sometimes there can be nothing more empowering than being able to get important ideas across to someone and have them understand exactly what you are saying. The ability to communicate can truly be one of the most valuable skills a person can have. The best part about it is that there is always some way to improve your communication skills, another way to say what you want to. That’s where I come in. Not only do I want to help you improve your skills, but by doing so I also learn and improve too! As a History major, I’ve realized that everything we know, all the knowledge we have of technology and of the world was built from the knowledge of those before us, from their words, both written and spoken. Imagine what will be built from our words when we are a part of history! As a writing consultant, it is my goal to help those words become unforgettable.
Sumeyya Rehman
I’m a junior majoring in Sociology and Pre-Dental at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I enjoy working at the Writing Center as it is an environment that allows me to teach as well as learn. Because reading and writing are my passions, I hate to see my fellow students struggle with a skill that I know is absolutely essential in the current competitive global society. Besides being an avid reader and writer, I am a part-time henna artist who is always looking for inspiration in various styles of art and textures (I am also looking for gigs!). Before my job at the Writing Center, I worked for two years as an in-class assistant and scribe for students with disabilities at Washtenaw Community College, a humbling experience which taught me that above all, there are many things a human mind can accomplish, even against severe odds. My native language is Urdu/Hindi. I can converse easily with others but tend to switch back and forth between English and Urdu.
Nabilah Safa
Believe it or not, I once hated to read. I stubbornly would stick to picture books until about 4th grade, when a very smart teacher introduced me to my first “big” book: Strawberry Girl. What can I say? Ever since then, I have been an avid reader. I’m a junior this year and am enjoying every minute of it. My favorite eras of English literature are the eighteenth and nineteenth century. I love Jane Austen’s novels and have read all of them at least twice. I also enjoy doing some of my own writing, both critical essays and creative writing. I hope to become an editor of fiction and later a professor of literature. I hope to learn through being a writing consultant how to help people improve their writing and also to improve my own. I look forward to helping others and meeting new people from all majors and backgrounds.
Ian Tran
I am an environmental science and environmental studies double major currently pursuing my third year of studies who embraces the multidisciplinary and metadisciplinary methods of research, analysis, and learning. I enjoy helping others and want to empower anyone willing to learn—and amicably persuade those not yet enthused about learning—with ways to optimize what they want to say through the vigilant pursuit of refined thought and writing processes. As an orientation leader, I delighted in sharing information about the campus resources with new students, familiarizing them with the campus, and integrating them into the campus community. As a writing consultant, I look forward to enriching the academic community at the University of Michigan-Dearborn as well as exploring the exciting and intimate realm of perception with my fellow peers.
Alice Walker
To me, the Writing Center is an opportunity—both to improve other people’s writing and to help revolutionize my own. As a Chemistry major, opportunities for writing are few and far between, and what writing there is in the subject is strictly regimented and formatted, with the aim of simple and direct transfer of information. The assigned reading is for the most part similar to the formatting—simple, direct and without ceremony. I feel I have missed, in many respects, the more beautiful aspects of writing and reading, both in terms of my writing and others. By participating in a dialogue between myself and other writers, I hope to engage both their minds and mine to the improvement of both. Since I was very young I have been “[improving my] mind by extensive reading,” and now I hope to improve it by constant dialogue. I took four years of Spanish in high school; this did not make me fluent but I know enough to communicate adequately.